Do you want to create an online store in WooCommerce?
It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins, since it allows you to build an eCommerce easily and intuitively, as well as customize and manage it. In fact, it has a huge number of plugins that allow you to enrich its functionalities and improve the user experience, among other advantages:
- No programming knowledge required
- It is compatible with most free and commercial WordPress templates
- Supports virtually all payment modes
- Supports SSL security protocols
- It is free and open source
In addition, WooCommerce allows you to create scalable stores, which means that you can start trading with a very small catalog of products and, little by little, expand it until you collect more than 100,000 different items without performance problems.
All this sounds great, but…how to create an online store with WooCommerce?
We see it step by step! ⬇️?
8 steps to create your eCommerce with WooCommerce
1. Buy a free domain
It is the first step to launch your project online. To buy a domain, you have to access specialized platforms for domain sales and register your own. Once done, you can host it on the server you have chosen for your eCommerce.
And how to know the availability to register a domain? You can go to Dondominio, Godaddy, Namecheap, Arsys or other similar platforms, which will tell you which are the free domains.
2.Hire a hosting service
It is one of the fundamental legs of any online store. It is one of the fundamental legs of any online store.
?? Discover here how to choose the best hosting for your WordPress website.
3. Choose the theme
What structure and appearance do you want your online store to have?
WordPress offers different options, both free and paid, as well as visual editors that will help you organize your online store in an agile and intuitive way.
Remember to install a theme that is 100% compatible with WooCommerce features and that can also respond to the needs of your website.
At this point, we recommend installing a page builder or web page builder to facilitate the design and layout of your online store using the drag and drop system.
4. Install an SSL certificate
All eCommerce must have an SSL certificate; a security system that allows data to be encrypted in a format that can only be read if the decryption key is available.
5.Install WooCommerce
Once you have your domain registered, the hosting contracted and the template selected, it is time to take action. But how to install WooCommerce?
This WordPress plugin is installed just like any other.
You just have to go to the Administration section > Plugins > Add new.
Type ‘WooCommerce’ in the search box and select it. After pressing ‘install now’, wait a few minutes for the process to complete and, once done, select ‘Activate’.
Once installed, the plugin wizard will try to sell you additional services, but it will also offer you some functionality that can help you set up WooCommerce.
6. Set the basic information
The first thing you are shown is a small tutorial that also allows you to configure some elements of the site: currency, payment methods, location… You can take the opportunity to enter the basic information of your website and add the necessary plugins.
Basically, we recommend adding:
- Geographical location of the physical store
- Type of products you sell
- Currency you are going to use
- Payment methods (allows you to choose between two online methods, which are PayPal and Stripe, and three offline: bank transfer, check and cash on delivery)
- Basic plugins recommended by WooCommerce
Keep in mind that you can modify all this later, so if you are not clear about all the information or do not know which plugins to install, you can do it later.
It remains only to activate the settings, and voilà! You just created an online store with WooCommerce.
7. Add products to the catalogue
Did you have a store before? You have two ways to create your catalogue; from scratch, adding the products one by one, or importing them from the catalogue of another own eCommerce.
If you have many products, this will be the most expensive phase, although it is not complicated:
You must add the products using the rich text editor and the forms provided by WordPress with the help of the wizard, which will ask you for the information you must add: product name, image, description, characteristics…
8. Choose the WooCommerce theme
WooCommerce will have offered you its StoreFront theme upon installation. You can limit yourself to it, or if you want access to other layout features, you can select another compatible theme.
Remember that this decision should not be made lightly, since the theme will largely depend on the visual result and the operation of your online store. For this reason, at Doowebs we recommend you analyse different theme repositories and choose the template that best suits the characteristics of your project.
At this point you should already have an online store built and running.
From this moment on, it is important to attend to all the tasks that must be done in a physical store or, in this case, digital: control of orders and shipments, stock management, returns, customer service…
Do you need help to create your online store in WooCommerce?
Consult our Doowebs team: your web design and development company in Valencia.